My resolution is somewhat lacking

In January 2012, like thousands of other people, I made a number of new year resolutions. Being a new blogger, I decided to share them with the wider world.

“The beginning of the year is a good time to set out what we want to achieve during the year. I have this daft idea that, if I write them down and share them with others, they will be easier to achieve,” I said.

Expect progress reports during the course of 2012 … I promised.

Of course, I didn’t give any progress reports at all and (like all people with new year resolve) I promptly forgot all promises. So what I'm doing now is a bit of a scary exercise - just how well have I managed to perform against the targets I set myself in January 2012?

Resolution No 1 - what I said: I will lose weight: I guess this is on the list of 75 per cent of people’s new year resolutions. I gained a stone (14 lbs) every seven years between the ages of 21 and 49 and I’ve been chugging along at 15 st (210 lbs/95.5 kg) since then. I don’t feel bad, but truth is that it’s a bit too heavy and I know that I eat far too many biscuits and far too much chocolate, crisps, nuts and alcohol.

I started 2012 hovering around 15st and I finished the year hovering around 15st. The government has now revised its BMI classifications, so I’m just overweight rather than obese. It’s hardly a great endorsement for my willpower - they moved the goalposts and I just scraped through. Not achieved.

Resolution No 2: Losing weight will entail cutting down on the chocolate (cutting it out altogether if the plan doesn’t work), eating no salted peanuts and only the odd biscuit. I will eat more fruit and eat only bread that I’ve made myself. I’ve been making bread from spelt flour to a recipe dating back to the Romans. It’s very tasty, gluten free and is a wholemeal product so it fills you up for longer and is better for your digestion.

Oh dear! I didn’t cut down on chocolate and I didn’t cut it out altogether when the diet fell behind target. In fact, I can’t believe I made that promise - what was I thinking? I have reduced salted peanuts to a rare treat, but probably filled the gap with extra biscuits. As the the spelt bread, I have half a dozen bags of spelt flour sitting in my cupboard, which is a sad testament to that promise. Most of the time just lately, I don’t even eat wholemeal bread. Not achieved.

Resolution No 3: I will have at least three drink-free days per week and I’ll aim to make it four most weeks. I’ve got into the habit of having a glass of wine, a gin and tonic (or two) every day and it is a habit. I will try to drink to socialise and not just for the sake of having a drink.

I think you’ll guess what happened here ... I have cut down, but it’s more like two free days on average rather than three. Lots of people have given up alcohol for January - not me. Not achieved

Resolution no 4: I will exercise more. Time is always against me, but walking is the key to improving fitness and I’ll try to walk from Victoria to King’s Cross at least three times per week. It’s hard in the morning because I’m often pushed for time. However, I’ll do my best and also strive to give the dogs a couple of good four milers at the weekend. I’ve been walking them across the fen to Old Knarr Fen Road and back the same way. That means Gravel has maximum time off lead and a really good run. It seems to have paid dividends – Margaret and I can see a difference with his doggy waistline even after just a few weeks.

We’ve had more success with Gravel than with me. Finding time to walk in the morning is an issue, so I decided to use the Boris Bikes. That was working well until half the roads in London were closed for the Olympics and I was forced to cycle through Parliament Square which is super scary. I’ve walked the dogs, but nesting lapwings spoiled the fen walk until late June and jobs in the garden meant weekends were time scarce. Part achieved.

Resolution No 5: I will buy a motorcycle – not sure which one or how much I will spend, but I will get another modern bike. I will also strive to get the two classics back on the road this year. I just need to make more time. I’ve really missed having a modern bike. The classics are a good idea, but they’re more for tinkering with than for riding. I wish I hadn’t sold the GS, but then I wish that I hadn’t sold every bike I’ve ever owned. You should never sell a motorcycle; stick it in the back of the garage if you’re not using it. They always come in sometime and the Lambretta SX200 I had when I was 16 would now be worth about four grand! I’d really like a BMW R1200ST, but we’ll have to see how the bonus pans out. I’m watching this month’s (and the year’s) figures very carefully.

Got maximum bonus and subsequently bought a BMW R1200ST in April. Achieved in full - this one was easy!

Resolution No 6: I will get on top of work. It has been a really hard year. There have been so many distractions and so many people leaving that we seem to have been doing more fire-fighting than properly planned campaigns. I think we’re now getting a really good team together and a few extra hands, so I really hope this year will be more structured and I’ll be able to do the role I am supposed to be doing. I’ve not got that many more years until I retire and I’d like to enjoy the last few and feel that I’ve really achieved some things.

It has been a better year, I’ve worked a bit smarter most of the time and we’ve had a more settled team. Achieved in full

Resolution No 7: I will be nicer to people in London. It isn’t easy because London really does bring out the worst in you. I will try not to push people on the Tube and I will try not to kick pull-along cases. I pushed a nun last year, not hard, just enough to get her out of the way. Mind you, she had just come out of the station entrance stopped dead and was talking on her mobile phone (probably lost and asking directions, poor soul).

I’ve worked really hard at this. London is so full of rude, awful people that it’s very difficult. I have stood my ground and I have not given way when people have pushed in front of me, but I have been admirably restrained and haven’t kicked one pull-along case all year, not even the gay little lap-top pull-alongs that wimpy blokes seem to have. Achieved pretty bloody well!

Resolution No 8: I will enjoy my garden. We have worked hard in the garden this year and we’ve spent a good £4-5K on summerhouse, decking, sets, bricks, pots, furniture! 2012 is the year we get payback – we can sit and enjoy it. Here’s hoping for a nice summer!

Well it started raining in early May and it didn’t really stop until the start of this week, when it started snowing! I have kept up with the garden and it’s been really nice most of the year (see http://ericsdailydiary.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/my-garden-through-seasons.html for evidence). We’ve hardly had the chiminea lit or the barbecue sparked. We’ve not been in the summerhouse much and the patio furniture has grown a layer of green mould. Not achieved (but I did enjoy my garden even if it was wet).

Resolution No 9: I will see more of my family. Family history work has also taught me to appreciate my current family more. We will visit the children in London; I see them regularly and often stay over, but Margaret hasn’t been to Tom’s since he got the house straight and she’s never been to Max’s new flat. I also want to visit my surviving aunts – Aunt Pam, Aunt Margaret and Aunt Joyce – and talk to them about my mother and father. It would be good to record that conversation and perhaps get Tom in tow, so that he could video it. How amazing would it be to have had some video of my dad, let alone grandparents or great grandparents?

Margaret has been down to London every couple of months, she’s seen Max’s flat, visited Tom’s a couple of times and also been to Sam’s. I haven’t seen Aunt Pam or my Yorkshire aunts and we bailed out of a trip to France to see Graham and a trip to Northwich for a Katie homecoming party. Margaret hasn’t seen Lizzie for 18 months. We need to try harder. Part achieved.

They’ve closed half of London!

London hosts the Olympics this summer and one might expect some disruption, but I wasn’t prepared for what they’ve done to St James' Park.

This is my regular route to work - Trafalgar Square, under Admiralty Arch, into the Mall and then left along Horse Guards Road around the top of St James’ Park into Birdcage Walk.

I got quite a shock on Tuesday when I found traffic being blocked from going through Admiralty Arch. There was a truck loaded with barriers in front of me, so I thought the passageway was closed to allow unloading. I got off my bike and walked/scooted through the arch, but they have installed barriers all along The Mall - it is completely closed (and enclosed). You can’t drive along it and you can’t cross it on foot.

It’s the same with Horse Guards Road, which is closed the full length and The Mall is shut from Admiralty Arch to the roundabout in front of Buckingham Palace.

Everything was shut, so I had to go up Pall Mall and cut through into Green Park (with a fair bit of bike carrying), walk through Green Park to Buckingham Palace and then back on my bike.

Next day, I went along Whitehall and then cut across by the Churchill War Rooms, along the pavement to Birdcage Walk. Basically, all traffic is being funnelled along Whitehall into Parliament Square, which is no fun at all on a bicycle!

St James Park is closed on two sides and the SE corner is completely full of tents and marquees. I presume all this is because they are staging beach volleyball in Horse Guards Parade, which sounded like great fun, but now seems absolutely stupid. Lord knows why they have to close so many roads and put a big chunk of St James Park over to a tent town. Why do they need so much stuff - it’s only beach volleyball.

They’re taking the fun out of London with all this fencing; there’s also talk of special limo lanes which will be banned of all traffic except Olympic athletes and officials. I hope there are none of those on my route to work.

Finally, the Olympic organisers are now advising people to stay away from Hyde Park Corner which is where they earlier said it would be a great place to watch the cycling and marathon - the two free events that all Londoners could see. The latest advice comes after the Jubilee weekend when weight of crowds caused problems at certain pinch-points, including Hyde Park Corner.

Pedalling my Boris bike

Bikes lined up in their docks

London Mayor Boris Johnson, champion
of the cycle hire scheme

I have joined the Boris bikers. I tried them once or twice last summer, when I bought day membership on my credit card and it was a somewhat mixed experience. The main problems were a lack of bikes where and when I needed them and then problems with the pay stations not taking my credit card. It was also a faff having to enter my card and get a code every time I wanted to use one.
Availability seems to have improved quite a lot and the tube has been really crowded (and likely to be more so during the Olympics in a few weeks time).
Anyway, I decided to buy annual membership, which costs £45 plus £3 for a key, which is actually an electronic stick which has your details encoded. When you want to use a bike, you push your key in, wait until the light goes green on the docking station and you can then withdraw your key and pull out the bike. You can use the bike for up to half an hour without paying anything more and when you’ve finished you just push the bike into an empty docking station and that’s it.
If you use the bike for longer, I think it costs £1 for the next half hour. It’s designed for short journeys around town and is perfect for that. There’s also a website where you can check which journeys you’ve made and see the times taken.
So I’ve been using the bikes between King’s Cross and Victoria and it takes me around 20 minutes to cycle the three miles, so I don’t pay anything extra. With a tube journey costing me £2 each way, I only have to make 24 journeys and the annual membership has been paid for. I have to say that I rather enjoy the journey and, despite the really wet start to summer, I’ve made good use of the bikes with probably around 10 trips already clocked up (the scheme has just recorded 11 million journeys in the two years it’s been running).
I certainly feel as if I’ve done some exercise by the time I get to Victoria and once I’ve built up some stamina, I’ll start to use the bikes both ways (I’m a bit worried about missing my train in the evening).
The bays at King’s Cross are quite busy, but in the morning there are half a dozen men bringing new bikes out of a nearby garage and pushing them into bays. In the evening, the reverse happens, with a similar number pulling bikes out and taking them into store, so there’s somewhere for you to dock.
I have had a few minor issues. The bells never seem to work and with pedestrians apt to just wander in front of you, I’m always ready to shout “look out”. The other common fault is that the gears are often a bit dodgy. They don’t go in smoothly and often jump out of top gear and down a cog. The bikes are quite low geared, so if it does that, you can suddenly find yourself pedalling furiously.
A week or so ago, I jumped on a bike at King’s Cross and was soon puffing like a train. I couldn’t work out what the problem was, then a chap came past me on another bike and told me my tyre was almost flat. I docked it in Cartwright Gardens and pressed the fault button so no-one else would use it. However, you can’t dock a bike and immediately get another out, so I was stranded on two feet. I walked across Russell Square and got on another bike from the bay by the British Museum. I’ve made a point of checking the tyre pressure before undocking the bike since then.
This Monday, my bike had a badly buckled front wheel which gave it a bit of wobbly handling, but nothing to worry about really. Considering the hammering and abuse the bikes must get, it’s surprising they’re not in a worse condition.
My journey goes through the back streets alongside Euston Road. I start in Belgrove Street, then cut across to Argyle Street, Whidborne Street, Judd Street, Leigh Street and Marchmont Street. It sounds complicated and there are a lot of one-way streets and dead ends, which means that there are not many cars. In the one-way sections, there are bike lanes, so it works quite well. I go through Russell Square and round the side of the British Museum, then across Bloomsbury and down into High Holborn. I then turn left into Shaftesbury Avenue and then sharp left again down St Martin’s Lane past The Coliseum and into Trafalgar Square in front of St Martin’s in the Field. I then go through Admiralty Arch into the Mall and turn left into Horse Guards Road and Birdcage Walk around the perimeter of St James’ Park, into Buckingham Gate and then Bressenden Place to park up alongside Westminster Cathedral (not Abbey) which is the Catholic cathedral.
There’s not too much traffic except in Russell Square and Trafalgar Square and it can get a bit busy in Bressenden Place. It’s really nice being in the open and cycling through Bloomsbury and Covent Garden is a pleasure. On a couple of days, I’ve cycled past a troop of cavalry horses returning along Birdcage Walk from their morning exercise to Wellington Barracks. There’s one rider holding two loose horses. They hold up all the cars as they queue up to go through the barracks gates, but I can cycle past quite easily.